


End Of An Era

by Kyuubiluver342



Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Spoilers, Whole Cake Island Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-03 23:33:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14007267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyuubiluver342/pseuds/Kyuubiluver342
Summary: A character study about how Reiju sees her family and the future. Spoilers for the Whole Cake Arc!





	End Of An Era

End of An Era

The rain hits the window and the echo fills the room. It’s cold and she really should get back into bed, but the information she has been given makes her unwilling to move from her spot, from her silent contemplation. Reiju Vinsmoke stares out the window, a strange calm filling her like never before. Emotions were foreign to her, but even she could tell something was brewing inside her, just under the surface. She cannot tell what it is, whether it is relief, or rage, sorrow or loss. Maybe it is simply the feeling of knowing that her time was short in this world.

She does not expect to be saved. She expects to die, as Sanji explained they would. Maybe that would be best for the world as a whole. The Vinsmoke family has caused nothing, but evil and chaos since their creation. Since the moment their father decided he was going to make an army, the world has been wrapped in a black smog. Maybe now the sky will finally be clear.

She doesn’t get a chance to think about these things a lot. Growing up, she was always training, studying, working to become the perfect solider that their father craved. She was never left alone long enough to consider these things, but at night, sometimes, she would find herself wide awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering.

She had always wondered if Sanji knew how lucky he was. If he understand what sort of gift he had been given. The ability to feel emotions, the fact that he escaped their father’s steel grip, the fact that he got to live life as he wanted. Did he understand? She places her hand against the window and feels the cold there, but her body doesn’t shiver like it should. A body like this, as strong as steel, as fast as lightening, cannot feel properly. Pain means nothing because she has never felt it. She never grows weary or tired.

How she envied him, how she longed to see the world the way he did. Not as a solider off to war, but a human, ability to live life and love as he wished. To have dreams, ambitions, beyond war and death, god how she longs for it, even just a little. One hand touches her legs, she idly remembers the pain in her legs, the way her blood felt on her skin. Never had she felt such a thing, never had she been injured in such a way.

Reiju: Pain shows that you are still alive.

Was she alive? Could she count herself as one of the living? It didn’t feel like it. She shook her head and moved back to her bed. It didn’t matter now. The wedding was in a few hours. She would need to keep her mask up tomorrow. She would not say anything to her other family members, she could only hope this would be the end of it all.


End file.
